In my opinion Mike rode Amazombie and Bodemiester the same. He sent both horse with fast fractions. I question if he thought in his mind that he had the best horse and could not be passed with the way the track was playing. Amazombie never won at 7F before and Mike had him pressing the pace and in my opinion asked him too soon. Mike went out blistering with Bode for 1 1/4 mile race. Bode ran his eye BALLS off.
Oh well on to the next!
Smith rode them like they were the best and thats ok. On the other hand, Frenchie butchered Union Rags(thats twice now) He\'d be off I were managing UR.
I agree Leparoux should be replaced for UR.
I don\'t know what your point is because I am on my 9th rum punch; but Mike Smith is the best jockey in the world right now.
Bar none. take it to the bank.
Thanks
Wild Again
Union Rags made his own trouble. Nobody was going to keep him from stumbling at the start.
I like Mike Smith, too and always have, especially since I scored a big win with him and Tiago in the Santa Anita Derby at 29-1. But it was 7 or 8 years ago, pre-Chantal I think, I was at Santa Anita with a girlfriend who is blonde and pretty tall. We were out by the walking ring and Mike Smith walks right by us on his way to the paddock. He looked at her and gave her a big smile and said \"Hi there\" or something like that. To this day whenever she sees him in a race she says \"That\'s my jockey!\".
Unless something different is being said behind closed doors--Baffert claimed that he was happy with the way Bode was ridden.
Is there anybody who thinks that Bode would not have won hands down if Trinniberg was not in the race?
Smith set very fast early fractions--got a breather in the turn, opened up 5 on the field in the lane. He only got caught in the last 70 yards--Bode is clearly the best horse of this group, and loses very little in defeat.
If managed correctly, he can win a whole lot of races going forward--reminds me a lot of Holy Bull and his style of running. (oh, and guess who rode Holy Bull?)
Mike Smith did everything right on Bodemeister. There is not question about it. The man won over 5,000 races and is tied for the most Breeders Cup Wins with Jerry Bailey and is in the hall of fame. Bodemeister got ran down by a horse that was in the right part of the track today at Churchill, which was outside 2-3 path.
As for Union Rags, if I were Matz or the owners, I would go get Castellano back for the next mount. The horse showed brilliant speed as a 2 year old with Castellano aboard, and yes he was aboard him for his brutal trip in the Juvenile. The horse needs an aggressive gate rider, and Leparoux has never been known to aggressively shove anything out of the gate. The track and rider\'s lack of aggressiveness along with the Dixie Union pedigree was his undoing. You know if you are 17th at first call you will need to manuever through traffic.
We can respectfully disagree on Mike Smith being the best jockey in the world right now. In my opinion Castellano is the best in the business right now.
mchmura44 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Smith did everything right on Bodemeister.
> There is not question about it. The man won over
> 5,000 races and is tied for the most Breeders Cup
> Wins with Jerry Bailey and is in the hall of fame.
> Bodemeister got ran down by a horse that was in
> the right part of the track today at Churchill,
> which was outside 2-3 path.
>
> As for Union Rags, if I were Matz or the owners, I
> would go get Castellano back for the next mount.
> The horse showed brilliant speed as a 2 year old
> with Castellano aboard, and yes he was aboard him
> for his brutal trip in the Juvenile. The horse
> needs an aggressive gate rider, and Leparoux has
> never been known to aggressively shove anything
> out of the gate. The track and rider\'s lack of
> aggressiveness along with the Dixie Union pedigree
> was his undoing. You know if you are 17th at
> first call you will need to manuever through
> traffic.
I don\'t think Leparoux did much wrong. I blame the horse more than I blame Julian, much more. But I would go back to JJ as well. His style fits UR perfectly.
Mike D,
Union Rags broke a step slow in his first two starts but after that broke sharply in every other start prior to yesterday.His latest gate profile is more to the quick side than not.The Mig, liked this one going in and noted UR breaks like a scolded cat if asked.
Given the poor post position of UR(relative to where the speed would come from)Frenchie had only one thing to accomplish, break clean.Cant give him a mulligan for not accomplishing that.Frenchie very upset at criticism following FD and may have choked or UR could have been standing poorly at the break.A horror trip if you just follow UR all the way.
UR, only contender going in with an excuse coming out. The phony wides, good trippers all showed their true colors,racetrack slow.
Mike
Fair enough, Mike.
I used the horse, so I feel better with your take than with my own.
Did too Mike, but was aware of strong possible early trouble in light of the post draw and where the speed was likely to come from.
Think Indy gets a legit excuse now.
http://www.drf.com/news/kentucky-derby-2012-take-charge-indy-have-surgery-chip-ankle-will-miss-summer-races
is this trainer-speak for \"good-bye Julian\", or what?
http://www.drf.com/news/kentucky-derby-2012-matz-calls-union-rags%E2%80%99s-race-disaster
Kent and Calvin were interviewed together on the NBC pre race show-they are friends-and I don\'t think they have a lot of love for Julien, who comes down to Kentucky and wins all those races. So I think it is not inconceivable that they jointly decided that pinching him off at the start would make it tough on the most likely winner. I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, and my dough was on Dullahn, but watching the head on raises that question.
Now, that said, I do think Julien totally screwed up by not immediately taking UR to the outside and letting him run. Other horses have circled the field and won-Gato Del Sol, for example. If you are the best, you gotta go for it and not hope the rail opens up. So I would not be surprised to see a jockey switch, Garrett Gomez would be perfect.
I agree with all of this, and think that if UR had gotten Gemologist\'s (who I unfortunately pounded at the tote) trip, he would have been right there in the stretch.
So who is the new jock on UR because he looks like the current year\'s copy of Lookin At Lucky.
Ran wide to get beat after running the better number in the BC Juv (both favs), comes out in the first start as a three year old and runs a big race (LAL was a top; UR a pair), has an off race/tough trip in his last prep, has a disaster trip in the KD, the jock gets replaced and he runs to win the Preakness and the Haskell. Also, as proven by the Classic, maybe he never did really want to go 1 1/4 miles anyway.